


young god

by dreadfulbeauties



Category: Faust - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Genre: Banter, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:08:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26557879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreadfulbeauties/pseuds/dreadfulbeauties
Summary: At one point during the years of bliss that would feel like the blink of an eye to Faust far later, he and Helen have a little talk.
Relationships: Heinrich Faust/Helena (Faust - Goethe)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 4





	young god

“You’re a very contradictory man, Doctor Faust.”

She’s aware, he thinks with both a touch of concern but also pride. Helena knows the game they play, tiptoeing around in circles. He watches her turn about on her back, heavy auburn hair rustling against the backless couch. Helena blinks up at him with heavy-lashed, dark brown eyes — large and soft, but with a different shine to them than Gretchen’s. If Gretchen was a dove, then Helena is a peacock. She knows that she can turn heads, and she is careful about it.

He stares down at her, lips fixed in a sly little smile. “What makes Your Majesty say that?”

“Well, you warned me that you aren’t the sentimental sort. You’ve got a head too full of mathematics and medicine, at least in your words. Yet there is something in your every movement, a very peculiar little shift in your expression, the moment you lay eyes upon me. You soften your words around a choice few — would I be wrong to assume that I’m one of those few?”

“Of course not. Who are those others?”

“That friend of yours. My memory fails me — the one with the cat-like smile and the eyes that are such an intense shade of brown that they’re almost red. You’re close. I can tell in the way your eyes shift a little in his presence, and how the inflection in your voice drops.”

_Of course — Mephistopheles._ Helena knows that she plays a game with Faust, and he gets the impression that she’s at the very least slightly aware of someone yanking on the strings and jerking him about — not quite speaking for him, but his devoted servant may not be so devoted or even a servant. She has her suspicions, and she’s wise to have her suspicions.

Faust doesn’t mind, though. He is happy to play games with Helena. She knows how to play.

He shakes his head. “I think we’re both aware that I don’t solely see Your Majesty as an acquaintance and queen. That’s no reason to jump to conclusions.”

“Ah,” Helen smiles, coral-colored lips framing a light smile, “But I never said you were sentimental. I just observed how your words don’t exactly match up to what you say about yourself, at least in my eyes. I know full well from experience the dangers of generalizing and jumping to conclusions — as you probably do, Doctor Faust, seeing as you’re a man of science.”

“Jumping to conclusions is inevitable, but everyone’s guilty of it, including me. We just have to unlearn that as a habit. Sadly, some people are unwilling to. As I’m sure Your Majesty is familiar with.”

The smile on her face slips away. She rolls around on the couch, Faust watching the thin layers of rich purple chiton rasp over her chest and stomach. When she stares back up at him, those bold brown eyes of hers are pensive — far from angry, but still nothing like the almost cat-like amusement that danced around her pupils mere moments ago. Light sheds off her skin in the fading rose-gold of evening, setting Helena aglow.

“I am.”

Hers is not a placid face. She is just playing her games, struggling to walk and not stumble her way towards Heaven once her time is up (or rather, Elysium — Faust knows that for her there are a multitude of Gods, ones with faces carved of stone and marble). Ironic, thinks Faust, that the most beautiful woman on the Earth, the one who launched a thousand ships, has witnessed so many ugly things unfurl before her eyes.

And she knows that Faust has seen such things, too.

“Maybe I am as contradictory as Your Majesty says I am. You certainly have the evidence to prove it.”

“Well, I doubt you’d want to call yourself the contradictory sort, Doctor.” She leans further up from where she’s stretched across the couch.

“If I may, Your Majesty… you’re a very intelligent woman. You latch onto the smallest, most seemingly-inconspicuous details about others that even I might fail to notice and never let to go.”

She tips her head up when Faust kneels down, lips slipping open just a little to close the gap between them. He’s hesitant to place his hands on her shoulders — he has to remember that Helena is far from fragile,and will not break if he so much as presses his fingertips against the cracks — but he does. And Faust tastes something sweet as honey upon her soft lips, basks in the warmth passing between tongue and teeth. She is lyrical, matching the movements of her head and the flexing open and close of her lips to his in tune to a song they can’t hear. 

Helena pulls away smoothly, the knowing smile having returned to her face.

“I’ve had a lot of time to observe.”

**Author's Note:**

> i'll admit: i initially didn't really /get/ part 2 of faust. i felt like the first part of the story worked well enough on its own. but as i re-read it i began to appreciate it a bit more - granted, i still take issue with the ending where faust essentially faces no repercussions for his actions, but upon re-reading it i really loved the relationship between faust and helena, which i wish there was more fic about. i think helena is (justifiably) much more in touch with her emotions than gretchen is - justifiably because helena is an adult by the time faust encounters her, while gretchen was a teenager.
> 
> this, i admit, was a bit of an exercise in banter and dialogue. i was a bit inspired by the scene between sullivan and the girl in the diner from preston sturges' "sullivan's travels" - really wonderful movie, in my opinion.


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